By Tanya Steele
CFA in Hoddles Creek are angry and disheartened by a recent alleged break-in and theft at their unit which has rallied the local community behind them, both online and in person.
Two people allegedly broke into the unit on the morning of Sunday 31 July, and around 8.30 am a volunteer CFA member came into the unit to find key equipment and materials missing from the station.
Police said that it is believed that unknown offenders broke into a fire station on Lusatia Park Road, ransacked the property and vehicles and stole several items at about 6am.
Community members and other CFA and SES units have come out in support of the unit, offering to replace some of the lost equipment and sharing the units Facebook post asking for more information.
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the support and we’re incredibly grateful,” said Hoddles Creek 2nd Lieutenant Brett Kerford.
“Upper Yarra and Emerald SES both offered to lend us equipment and we also had community members come up to the station yesterday saying that they’ve got some chainsaws at home that they can bring up,” he said.
The unit was offline for around six hours on Sunday while the police attended and the CFA members went through the process required to ensure their unit could be up and running again.
“We were unable to respond until we made sure the vehicles were operational and we had the police in doing their work and hopefully find evidence of who did it,” said Mr Kerford.
“They took axes, chainsaws, a generator, lots of equipment and tools basically, we had to go through all the vehicles and inventories to establish what was taken,” he said.
“Chris, our fourth lieutenant made a really good point that stealing from CFA was actually like stealing from the community because a lot of this equipment, especially chainsaws, are funded by fundraising and community donations and all that sort of stuff.”
The CFA has not been broken into before and Mr Kerford said it has been disheartening for the members of the unit, especially after the recent unexpected loss of their Captain Leonie Turner who passed away on 20 July.
“I think this has really hurt the brigade, emotionally – we’re pretty flat at the moment,” he said.
“Leonie was larger than life and an amazing woman.”
Mr Kerford said the unit was thankful there was no damage made to the unit and hopes that the culprits can be tracked down.
“It’s the inconvenience that we’ve now got to have to go through a process and obviously, that takes a lot of time to get this equipment replaced,’ he said.
“Social media can be negative but in this case it just had people just reaching out and making contact with us and trying to obviously bring a positive conclusion to the thing.”
Hoddles Creek CFA will continue in their duties and Mr Kerford said that it’s their job to get out there and the brigade is incredibly thankful to the community for their support.
“Some of the things we learned from Leonie and in how she conducted our unit was that it’s never about us – It’s about the greater good and what we can do for the community.”
Police said investigations into the incident remain ongoing.
Anyone who witnessed the incident, with information or CCTV is urged to call Crimestoppers or 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au
